A Tale of Twinblades
by Maiyatsumi
Summary: King Darian has rebels defying his rule. He sends his First and Most Noble Knight Kyo to dispose of the pests. But are the rebels truly the antagonists of this tale? -Story by HyperShanic
1. Chapter 1 The Story Unfolds

-Chapter 1-

**The Story Unfolds**

"No!" He stood there, stunned at the sight before him; his mother and father. No, his entire town wiped out. No longer on the face of the planet. The young lad collapsed over his father's body, crying. A dark shadow descended over the boy, and when he looked up, he awoke.

*|_|*

He gasped as he shot up from his bed.

"That's the second one this week, and it's only Monday night. Might as well get up and start my rounds." He stood up and headed for the washroom when he was greeted by the maid.

"Greetings, Knight."

"Morning, Maid."

"The King has summoned your presence in the throne room Sir."

"Very well, I shall be there soon enough." He hastily put on his full armor, which only took five minutes. He lifted his visor from his face, grabbed his weaponry and headed to the throne room.

"You requested for me sir?" He kneeled in front of the King and looked down.

"Look at your King, Kyo, when you speak." As said, Kyo lifted his head and looked at him.

"As you know, there are some of my people that defy my rules."

"Yes sir, the rebels."

"They seem to have gotten outside help from all over the lands. They are confident that they can overthrow my kingdom. They will begin the attack soon."

"But Sir, they would be mad. They would have to cross the river and go over the mountains. If they were to go around, they would surely perish in the desert." He now stood up, but he did not mean his King any harm.

"I know, but, I have a request."

"Yes sir. What is it?" Kyo stood upright now.

"Go spy on them. Go tell them what ranks they have upon them. You may make yourself known to them, even engage them into battle. For I know that you will prevail. You were trained by me." Kyo bowed.

"As you wish. I shall return in time then."

"You do not wish a horse?"

"No, my King. They only slow me down." The maliceful King nodded.

"Go forth my strongest knight. Show them what they are up against." With that, Kyo put down his visor and left the Castle.


	2. Chapter 2 Fortune's Fool

-Chapter 2-

**Fortune's Fool**

Kyo had made up good ground since his departure. He now scaled the highest mountain to get a good view of what lay ahead of him. Many leagues before him, he saw the fork of the river and noticed movement near the water's edge.

"There they are." He looked up into the sky above them and noticed a dark figure, no, _figures_, circling above them. "Too big to be birds of prey…. Perhaps, a dragon ally? This will be an interesting encounter." He jumped down from the ledge he was on and continued to follow the path.

*-.e*

"Ah, yes, this ought to be fine." Kyo was now at the foot of the mountains and could see the rebels quite nicely without them noticing him. "Hm, the typical rebels. They think that they can get past us using only ranged weapons. Not a single melee weapon. They won't ever learn." Kyo scoffed, but then he saw a flash of silver. "What's this?" He squinted his eyes and saw 2 figures, a boy and a girl, sparring. You never saw a female swordsman in these parts. "Swords, eh? That's a first in a long time."

Then a bird-like shriek was heard in the skies above him, and they all looked up. "A phoenix?!" Indeed it was. Covered in colorful plumage and a long tail of gold and scarlet. With that outburst, the rebels noticed Kyo in his knight's armor and thought that he was just a scout. It was the girl that shouted the orders.

"Everyone take your positions, the king's men have arrived!" Everyone moved into their assigned positions. The phoenix flew back and hovered high above the small group of six, next to the phoenix hovered the dragon. Mounted on it, was the dragon's rider. Kyo chuckled and took several steps forward and got a good view of the party, aside from the dragon rider, phoenix and the girl, there were three others. One of them gasped as he saw Kyo. It was the boy that was sparring earlier, positioned slightly to the right of the swords girl. He had the appearance of a squire, knight-in-training, or apprentice.

"That's…. the King's most noble knight!"

The one on the left side was a mage covered from head to toe in his robes, and as soon as he realized the truth as well, he began to chant something that sounded like a curse. The being on the far right of the swords girl was an archer. Of course, his bow was taut and ready to fire three arrows. It was then when Kyo spoke up through his visor.

"Insolent rebels! Enemies of my King! Surrender yourselves and I shall spare your lives so that you may pay your respects to my King!" He heard the dragon snarl above him, but Kyo didn't even flinch one bit.

"We shall never pay respect to that damned king of yours! Now bring out the rest of the knights!" The girl shouted back.

"There is no other here than I, Knave! May I have your name, warrior? "

"My name is Maiya Tsumi. And you will not have the pleasure of killing me OR my friends."

"Very well, Maiya. Brace yourself, for I challenge you and only you to a duel!" Kyo unsheathed one of his swords and pointed it at her.

"I accept your challenge. Prepare yourself!" Maiya also removed her sword from it sheath and pointed it back.


	3. Chapter 3 Playful Duel

HyperShanic owns almost everything on this story. Basically all but the editing process and the character "Maiya" are Shan's. From here on out, I will be writing every other chapter starting with this one! I'm Canadian so the editing process includes US English spell checking... Even "writting" is spelled differently, just wow. So anyway, I wrote this one, you'll see that the style is a lot different than how Shan does it. I completely changed the mood of this story haha. It's a bit longer than the others.

* * *

-Chapter 3-

**A Playful Duel**

Maiya lifts her wrist into the air and is immediately lifted up by the phoenix who drops her a few meters/yards away from Kyo. She lands on one knee and gets up slowly.

"Before the duel I'd like to point out something..." She said as the wind whistled.

"I've no time for you futile antics to-"

"Snob."

"Wha-"

"Shut up Snob."

"EXCUSE ME?!"

"Invading your enemy lands and not even introducing yourself first. This makes you a snob, Snob." She said crossing her arms.

"Have you no sense? Are you MAD? We're about to duel, possibly to the death. Arm yourself-"

"Snob."

"Stop calling me that."

"'Most Noble Knight of the King.' Isn't that a mouthful. I, Maiya Tsumi, demand you state your name! I'm not going to waste my breath every time I'm going to refer to you! I can't simply call you "You" or "Him" or "He" all the time. It's a stain on my honor. You yourself should be able to relate to that, if you truly can call yourself a knight that is. Unless you'd rather have me call you 'Snob' for the rest of your life, or mine for that matter."

"... Kyo. That's all I'll say. And... 'For the rest of your life, or mine for that matter.' Do you not have the confidence in you to win?"

"No. Not really."

"Then why are you here. You should be surrendering."

"Yeah see, that's just it. If the leader gives up, there's no way the rest are going to follow. I'm the Black Sheep of this herd, and as long as they have will to fight, so will I. Prepare yourself Kyo, ENGARDE!"

* =D*

Kyo draws his sword, but stays still watching Maiya with both eyes through his visor. Maiya rushes in. Kyo gets ready to block. Maiya kicks off his sword and swings off his shoulder to his back and vertically slashes him. Kyo widens his stance for a horizontal strike, but Maiya rolls under him and does an uppercut. 'She's fast...' Kyo said under his breath. 'I lost sight of her... Where is she...?'

"THERE!" he swung at her.

'Nice try.' said her voice from all directions.

"Then where... ABOVE!" Kyo looked up. BAM. Maiya came down from sky and heel kicked him in face, knocking him out.

"Phew. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. He knows quite a bit of my fighting style now... What ever."

"MASTER!!!" the apprentice hug tackled Maiya in the stomach.

"Ugh, Nickel, that hurt like... nickel..."

"When will I be upgraded?!"

"When I think you're better. I'll call you Steel sooner or later." She liked to give nicknames. Since she couldn't think of any for this kid, she simply called him metal names from weakest to strongest depending on his skill. Maiya got up. Then suddenly keeled over.

'When did he...' She thought to herself as she looked towards her left leg. 'When he guarded...'

"What's wrong Master?"

"It's MAIYA. M-A-I-Y-A. I'm okay." She said getting up. "Just a scratch."

"Pretty big scratch." Said another guy walking up with a bow in his hand.

"W-well... I meant the fact that it just grazed me. It's a damn sharp sword ya know!"

"So what happened?" Another guy with a staff walked up.

"I think, I grazed the sword while I jumped this shoulder. We both underestimated each other..."

"But he underestimated you more. Look at that, you caved in his visor. You are going to finish him now right?"

"HELL. NO." She said pausing after each word. She walked over to Kyo.

"Killing an opponent when he hasn't given his ALL, or when he's down, weakened, defenseless, knocked out; it's DISHONORABLE."

"That honor of yours is going to get you killed. Or at least someone else." said the archer.

"Whatever. We're taking him to camp. Let's get him healed up. Rivals are rare these days." Maiya said while bringing him up on her shoulder. 'Sheesh... this is why I don't wear armor... whatever... Field work is harder than this... HEAVE HO!' "NICKEL! GRAB THAT SWORD OF HIS AND LET'S GET GOIN'!"

"Y-YES MA'AM!"

The two ranged fighters just looked at each other and sighed. What a commander they had. And who knew what the knight was going to do, when he woke up. Who knew if he was even knocked out in the first place.


	4. Chapter 4 New Surroundings

-Chapter 4-

**New Surroundings**

*-.-zzzz*

I continued to cry and cry, and cry, until no more tears came and when that happened, I just sat there. The look of life in my eyes, gone. It wasn't long when there was the sound of footsteps behind me. I didn't bother moving, what was the use?

"All alone boy?" The stranger spoke, his voice deep and cold. The stranger moved in front of me and stood before me. I slowly nodded my head and managed to choke out a few words.

"Who… are… you?" I looked up and saw…. The king of our land. It was obviously him; his black armor with a golden rim, the blood red cape that followed behind him, that jewel encrusted scabbard with its sword- forged from the strongest of all metals, also with a gold handle.

"I am a friend of your father's. He told me that if something were to ever happen to him, I would look after your sword training."

My father never told me of this.

"Will I … have to go… with you?"

"Do you want to stay here? Surrounded by these memories of pain and sorrow?"

"N-no."

"Then trust me and come." He held out his hand and waited for me to take it. So I did.

*=.=*

I woke up again, only not so suddenly this time, I sat up and rubbed my eyes… wait…. I felt around my head and noticed that my visor was gone. The rest of my armor was still on, I checked my back, and not one, but BOTH of my swords were gone.

Then I remembered where I was.

Quickly, I stood up and looked around. I was glad that this was a tall and spacious tent. But this was dangerous, I was in enemy territory.

I poked my head out of the med tent, or so it seemed to be the med tent, and when the coast was clear from those rebels, I made my way outside. Taking all precautions, I searched for my weaponry and my visor. I'm not worried about the blades being damaged, it was my visor. It meant more to me than anything else.

The squire made an appearance out of nowhere, so I hid behind a near tent. I kept my eyes on him and in his hand was… one of my blades.

"Maggots! Only one… Now where's the other?"

Once the squire left the area, I relaxed a bit. It was impossible for me to relax fully in this camp….

"I'm going to have to search the entire camp grounds." I sighed; this was NOT to be easy. "I bet _Maiya _has at least one of my items. And that mage more than likely has my sword." I started by looking in the tent that I hid

behind of.

"Nothing but books and a staff and a desk…. Nothing of mine."

As I proceeded to leave, the emerald shard that was embedded in my armor began to glow softly as I passed the mage's staff. "Hm…." I dismissed it as nothing important to me, and continued outside. I searched what seemed to be the archer's tent next, for there were bows along the makeshift wall of all types, along with his quiver, ready with arrows. But no sword or visor. "I'm starting to abhor these people… First that girl abased me and now I'm stuck here searching for my property."

I left the tent in a huff and completely forgot to check my surroundings.


	5. Chapter 5 The Unpredictable Commander

-Chapter 5-

**The Unpredictable Commander**

"Okay... This will be harder than I thought..." _I dented this thing like heck with that gravity kick earlier... _

Maiya was holding Kyo's visor with both hands. It was dented inward from the strong downward kick she did on it a few hours ago. _This isn't looking good... I KNOW! Maybe Kuro will help!_

*:DDC*

_Authors' note: The remainder of this series was switched to a first person view. It's written more in a "journal" style until further notice._

"OH KURO! I need some REALLY HOT FIRE MAGIC NOW- hey where'd you-"

*Boom*

"Ms. Tsumi... I was in the middle of a spell..."

"Heheh... WHOOPS, my bad. Sorry, K?"

"It's alright." Kuro said brushing soot off himself. "What did you need?"

"I need you to help me with a forge."

"What for." I held the visor in front of me with gentle fingers. "I don't think he'll be too happy when he sees it like THIS. Heheh..." For a while Kuro starred at me like some idiot with blank annoyed eyes. "Soooo... is that a yes?"

*XDDD*

"Okay, I think you can handle the rest from here Commander Tsumi."

"Right-o!" I saluted at him, he then saluted back slowly in a tired and annoyed manner. TIME TO WORK! I pulled out a pair of goggles from my bag and securely fastened them on my face. I set it in the heat for a bit, took them out and pounded them with the hammer. I repeated this till th visor was in peak condition.

"FATHER! Thank you for being a wonder Smith and teacher!" I said to the ceiling, hands in a prayerful position, eyes sparkling. "I guess I'll leave them here till they're cool. Wow, it's dark already. I wonder if the Sno- I meeeeeaaaaan Kyo's up. Kyo eh... I need a nickname for him too..." I held a closed hand in front of my mouth. I started to think while on my way to the kitchen. I quickly fixed up a plate of sliced oranges and a glass of water, then headed to my own tent. It was also the medic tent. Though that's how it was decorated since the guys thought it'd be funny to dress me as a nurse sometimes. It was tough being the only female human in the group. Plus I was the only one who knew how to use everything. It's tough being needed too.

*=\*

I opened up the tent with my leg, since my hands were full with the food tray. I stopped at the entrance. ... Stupid guy... Maybe I should still call him a Snob. Going around while people are doing things for you. I left the tray at the table and went around the fast way to the forge which was just behind my tent, in a small trench. I grabbed the visor with my tongues and put them in a different bag.

"IF ANYONE SEES KYOKO-CHAN THE SNOB, I'LL BE IN MY TENT SLEEPING." I rushed off back into my tent and took off my padded Gi and slept with my dark green shirt. I untied my hair and pocketed the ribbon I used to tie it with. Then I stowed away those gosh darn heavy boots under the bed, kept my sword at my side. I stashed the bag the visor was in inside my pillow. I took another look at the bed, and regretted dropping the Snob into it.

"... I'm sleeping on the floor..." I moved the boots to the side of the bed, and carried the heavy pillow and covers under the bed. Good night all... I said, then I said my prayers and fell asleep.


End file.
